The Case for Individualized Goal Attainment Scaling Measurement in Elder Abuse Interventions

Abstract

Research available to inform the development of effective community-based elder abuse protective response interventions is severely limited. Elder abuse intervention research is constrained by a lack of research capacity, including sensitive and responsive outcome measures that can assess change in case status over the course of intervention. Given the heterogeneous nature of elder abuse, standard scales can lack the flexibility necessary to capture the diverse range of individually relevant issues across cases. In this paper, we seek to address this gap by proposing the adaptation and use of an innovative measurement strategy—goal attainment scaling—in the context of elder protection. Goal attainment scaling is an individualized, client-centered outcome measurement approach that has the potential to address existing measurement challenges constraining progress in elder abuse intervention research.